Saturday was going to be a busy day with a few Before Dawn events scheduled at La Fontana. I was looking to spending a few hours with John and Val but alas, that wasn't meant to be. Grandma had been with my parents for the week and mom and dad had dinner plans. Usually, grandma stays home (she's more than capable of looking after herself) but she's also leaving for Portugal in a few weeks and this would be the last weekend she spent with us. My mom didn't want her to stay home alone so Friday night she asked if I could stay home with her. A wrench for sure but how do you say no to mom and grandma? I couldn't so I decided instead that flaking on prior commitments was the easier way out (lame but what can I say).
Hubby wanted to head out in the morning so we bundled up grandma and too a drive to Horseshoe Bay where we parked, had a leisurely brunch at Trolls and then a nice walk around the water, watching the ferries come in and out of the terminal.
After the walk, we got back into the car and rather than heading home, we convinced grandma that ice cream would be a great idea so we drove over to Deep Cove (can you believe I'd never been there?) for dessert. The streets around the main strip were clogged with cars but a lucky turn of events landed us a great parking spot. We heard some music from a nearby park and ventured to check it out to stumbled on a Dragon Boat event that was going on (thanks to Special K for clarifying what exactly we'd stumbled on).
We watched for a few minutes before moving on to check out the area. I spotted this beautiful water feature which I've named "The Lovers." I didn't think to look for the actual name though if someone knows what it is, please let me know. All I know is that I love this feature a great deal - there's something almost magical about it.
We stopped by La Fontana before heading home to drop off the film and as much as I insisted that grandma come in for coffee, tea or hot chocolate, I couldn't manage to talk her into it and so hubby stayed in the car while I popped in to say hello, mumble a lame ass apology before rushing out. We then headed home for an afternoon of R & R which included dinner and a couple of football games since it was the only thing playing on Portuguese TV and she has little patience for anything in English.
It was a fun filled day and I'm happy to have spent it with grandma. She's usually the stay at home type so I'm happy we managed to get her out for a few hours to see some stuff she hand't seen before. I also hope to see her again before she goes otherwise, it'll be September before we get a peek at her silver hair again. She wouldn't let me take pictures (something about her hair - she's worse than I am when it comes to that), but here she is, watching TV a few months back:
I kind of buggered up. I had emailed Dale and Colleen about podcasting on Sunday and then I bailed. I didn’t do it on purpose, I simply didn’t get up.
Walked down to K’s on Saturday night with the promise from hubby that we’d go and have a few drinks and then walk home - except a few drinks turned into way too many drinks and the next thing you know there’s poker, followed by Trivial Pursuit and god knows what else. It was 6AM when we finally staggered home and into bed. I didn’t get up until 4:30. Wasted day. We managed to take the videos back to Rogers, I made soup for dinner and that was the extent of my Sunday.
This goes out to my podcast buddies who tried to get in touch with me on Saturday and Sunday morning only to get no response:
I had my Sunday completely scheduled. 10AM screening of Slumdog Millionaire at The Park, an afternoon photo walk with a friend who lives in the neighbourhood of the theatre and then an evening screening of Gomorra (a film I missed at VIFF and was very excited to see). The day went 75% as planned. Of course, the 25% error was all my fault.
Mom called me at 4:45, just as I was getting off the bus at Main Street and about to catch a Commuter bus to my 6:30 screening. Turns out, she’d made dinner. The sad part is that she told me about said dinner last week and I completely forgot. She was sad, she was angry and then she hung up on me. Standing on the corner of Main and Terminal, all in a tizzy that I’d forgotten about this, I made a split second decision. I called Dale, who I was supposed to meet at the screening and let him know that I wouldn’t make it. I called hubby to make arrangements for a pick-up at the Skytrain and I called mom back to let her know I was on my way.
On the one hand, I’m happy I made that decision and on the other, I’ve come to the conclusion that I wasn’t mean to see Gomorra. This is the second time my plans to see this have been thwarted and at this point, I’ve pretty much given up hope on seeing it before it comes on DVD some time next year. Bugger, I really wanted to see it too.
On the bright side, the first movie of the day was very enjoyable, as was my photo walk. Though the weather wasn’t all that nice, we still managed quite the trek from Main Street, up to Queen Elizabeth Park and then back. I took 200+ pictures and tested out the camera nicely. All of the pictures from my adventure have now been uploaded to Flickr.
As expected, the long weekend was wall to wall chalk full of action and adventure.
My thwarted plans were slightly appeased when hubby took me to the Chinese market in Chinatown. It's much, much smaller than Richmond but I managed to get a case for my phone which was exactly what I was looking for so that worked out quite well.
Saturday turned into a gong show of a day with tons of running around including an appearance in Surrey at a party being thrown by one of the local LX Group members in prep for the car show on Sunday. I was soooo bored, I Twittered my way through the party.
We made a quick getaway and headed to Ridgestock 2008. We were completely unprepared with no chairs, blankets or drinks and I was insanely bored for 20 minutes but once the band started, things picked up a little. Sadly, the band kept taking long, drawn out breaks and as it started to get colder, I started thinking I'd rather be at home. I took this short video in between sets:
Things went a little better on Sunday. Hubby headed out to a car show in the morning and I met up with my cousin who volunteered to take me to run some errands. I felt bad about it so rather than drive me around, I asked him if he'd be interested in going to the car show. We ended up heading over to see hubby who was in surprised shock when we showed up. It was a pretty small show but it was still fun and I've posted the photos at the usual place. I managed to find the time to head across the street to Chapters where I picked up my shiny new copy of "Breaking Dawn".
After that, we headed out to sis' place for swimming and dinner. After a few glorious hours in the warm pool, we had a fabulous dinner and after mom and dad left, the drinking started. The night included a whole load of alcohol, night swimming and a 4AM bedtime. I managed to roll out of bed at 11AM on Monday, went for a hop in the pool and then onto the sidelines with my book for a few hours of reading. For the most part, I simply spent time in the pool. It was a fabulous 2 days.
Little sis, the brother-in-law-to-be and the kids (the dogs - the little one is MIA from the picture) were excellent hosts. We'll have to do it again before the summer is out!
It's been a crazy week and it's likely to be a crazy weekend. I'll be Twittering a lot (that seems to be working for me really well), so if you're curious about the shenanigans, be sure to follow me (and if necessary) join up.
Hoping that it stays clear tonight so we can enjoy the evening at the Richmond Night Market not sure yet [plans thwarted when looking for a link and discovering that the market is closed for 2008! BOOHOO!]. Tomorrow is a surprise birthday party for an aunt (we still don't have all of the details), Sunday is a day trip to sis's place for a day full of fun in the pool and hot tub. As for Monday...still undecided but I have a load of movies to get through including one I've had from Rogers for over a week. Oops.
What I do have for you, and I know a few of you have missed this once-regular feature, is a KFF. Yes, the Keanu Friday Find is making a long awaited appearance. You ready for it? It's a really good one....Alright, enough teasing. Here it is.
I actually woke up at 5:30, stuck around bed for an hour and when I started to get sore, I finally got up, that was 6:30 this morning. Thankfully, it works out well because I had a little finishing up to do on my first "feature", which will go up tomorrow, and now that I'm done, I feel like I've already accomplished a lot.
On the slot for the rest of the day is lunch with Vern and Steph, both of whom I haven't seen in a while, a trip to the mall to purchase wrapping paper and a card for Father's Day tomorrow, and then a trip to the movies with hubby tonight to see Edward Norton in "The Incredible Hulk". All in all, should be a good day and to boot, the weather looks like it may hold up!
The weather gods seems to be smiling on us temporarily and the weather outside has turned from ugly rain to acceptable levels of sunshine. I'm just thrilled it's not raining.
No big plans for the weekend other than watching the football game tomorrow morning and then recording a podcast on Sunday. Other than that, I'm taking it easy. To boot, for the first time in months I'll be home on a Friday night. By myself. One of the boys in the car club is in a band that's playing tonight and a few of the boys are going to see the show. Hubby asked me if I wanted to come along but I passed it up. Let them have a boys night.
I missed it last week but I won't forget today! Here's this week's KFF:
I'm ready for it, I am. This week seems to have dragged but I'm only a few joyless hours away from escape and the beginning of what is shaping up to be a fantastic weekend.
First, a trip to "Indiana Jones: The Adaptation" tonight with a group of fellow film fans. Should be great fun.
Then Saturday is free comic book day. I think I'll make a stop at my local shop which I haven't been to in ages. We'll see what they've got for goodies there. I'm also supposed to be going to the big coffee meet in Vancouver but hubby and I are headed to the drive in with the car club and I'm not quite sure what time we're meeting up so the coffee may be a write off - we'll have to see if I can squeeze it in. It's my first trip to the drive in, ever, and we're heading out to the Twilight in Langley, the Lower Mainland's only drive in. The main attraction of the evening: "Iron Man", so far the best reviewed film of the year. I feel a bit of disappointment coming on because I can't believe it'll live up to the hype but I'm willing to reserve judgement.
Not sure what's in store for Sunday. Maybe a few films at home or maybe a trip to the mall for a double bill or who knows? Perhaps something else will come up.
Back to work but I leave you with the KFF which has been MIA for a few weeks. This is a big one, ripe for desktop background goodness!
It was a great, if overly busy weekend and as a result, I'm not fully on the ball today. I managed to get my full 8 hours of sleep but am still feeling a bit rundown.
I had the opportunity to share "The King of Kong" with a few friends on Friday night and I think everyone enjoyed themselves which is always good. I'm constantly amazed at how great that little film is. There are few documentaries out there that I can throw into the DVD player just for the heck of it but this is certainly one of them. If you haven't seen it yet, I urge you to track it down on DVD because chances are, you won't be disappointed.
Saturday was spent with friends and fellow podcasters Dale and Colleen at the Bridging Media conference. It was a fascinating and enjoyable day and from it came a load of interesting talking points which we felt deserved some attention so on Sunday, we recorded a short podcast on the subject and I must admit that listening to a bit of it yesterday, I was surprised to find I sounded a bit cross. I'm not, really. It's just a subject that I feel passionately about. If you have some time and have some thoughts on film (and other forms of creative en devours) financing and distribution, I urge you to check out the post over on Row Three which has the podcast, links to the event and links to more coverage of the event (including blogging coverage and audio of the various sessions).
The day wrapped up with a bit of a surprise when on the drive home I spoke to hubby and he mentioned that Future Shop was having a sale on televisions and after months of searching and humming and hawing about upgrading our TV to something more modern, we finally bit the bullet. The result was the purchase of a 42" true HD (1080p) LG LCD.
Yes, it's gorgeous and I love it but setting up the components took a few hours and Sunday was so busy I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy it. I look forward to sitting down with "The Matrix" to really get the feel for it. The next investment will be a Blu-Ray player though I think we'll hold off on that until the prices come down.
A great, if busy weekend which has turned into a crazy Monday. I look forward to going home tonight and curling up with the new TV and maybe a game or two of Super Mario 3.
I don't really want to call it "the weekend from hell" but I must admit that as much fun as I had and as much as I learned, this was a hellish sort of weekend full of interesting tidbits which left me drained.
Northern Voice 2008 was a huge success and I have a load of post ideas that came out of it which will be forthcoming in the next few days but I needed a bit of a laugh this morning so I though I'd share my solution.
The keynote speaker at NV was Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, and in the midst of his great talk (audio of which is coming soon - at least I think I have audio...4GB of audio is a lot of stuff to filter through...) he brought up a few peeves and one of them was that his Google ranking was being overtaken by another Matt, a Matt I'd never heard about.
The leading Matt is from a website called Where the Hell is Matt? and essentially, he's a guy who travels the world and dances at each new location. The truly funny bit is that Matt dances "like a white guy" (aka. not very well).
It's pretty darn funny and I can't help but watch the video below (a collection of Matt's dances from 2006) and laugh.
It is also worth noting that when you now type "Matt " into Google, Matt Mullenweg does come in at the number one spot. I wonder if it has anything to do with his presentation at NV?
Photo of Matt Mullenweg from Flickr care of duanestorey.
My CSIS midterm yesterday was a nightmare. Seriously. He dug through his notes and gave us some of the most obscure stuff to deal with. And who the heck gives a written test, complete with short answers, on computers? I'm not a happy camper. At least my practical assignments are good otherwise, I'd already be dead in the water.
I'm still sick and today I'm feeling a little more run down than the last few days (blame it on my 2 hour trip to various banks earlier this afternoon) but I will prevail and I still plan to attend my movie group event tonight. Then I'm heading home and to bed!
Hubby and I hope to get out tomorrow to test the GPS system. We still don't know where to go but I'm looking forward to an enjoyable day on the road capped off with a nice dinner and hopefully a movie - I'm pushing for "Jumper" but we'll see. And then Sunday...lunch with Vernie (who I haven't seen since before Christmas) and another film, this time "In Bruges" which I had hoped to see this week but which has been put on hold thanks to my flu. Somewhere in there I also have to make time to watch "Praug" which I downloaded the other day - I'm testing Jaman (a movie download service) to see if it's a service I'd like to keep using - and other than that, more sleeping.
And next week is Norther Voice! I'm very excited, mostly because it snuck up on me!
But enough rambling. On to the goods. A classic KFF to finish off the week.
The sniffles and sore throat started to set in on Friday but by Sunday it was a full blown illness. I managed to get it together enough to do some grocery shopping in the morning (so keen where we to get to Costco that we ended up waiting outside the door for 10 minutes for it to open). We also made a trip to Best Buy because they were having a sale on GPS systems. Hubby picked up a fancy system which was nearly $200 off. It's AWESOME. Talks to you and everything. Very nice and will come in handy for his trip in a few weeks.
Other than that, I managed to catch up on a bit of reading, watched a few more movies and finished the day with Buckley's and Masterpiece Theater. Still feeling god awful today but hopefully I'll get better instead of worse as the day goes on. I'd like to have the energy to finish "Lady Vengeance" which I started yesterday afternoon but had to turn off when MT started at 9PM. I'm thinking I may have to buy this film because so far, it's FANTASTIC.
Gotta tell you, I've been pining for Friday since Tuesday. There's a great weekend ahead and I'm really excited.
Tomorrow is a screening of Carl Bessai's "Normal" with a Talkback session with the director and crew, then recording a podcast AND THEN a free talk by the fantastic William Gibson at UBC. Sunday I'm meeting with a friend from my film class and Sunday night kicks off the first part of BBC's "Pride and Prejudice" on Masterpiece Theater as part of their Complete Jane Austen series. It's being shown in three parts and, I noticed, with no commercials. Very nice.
The other reason I've been pining to Friday is to share with you the fantastic KFF with some great new photos of the great Keanu in his upcoming film "Street Kings" (renamed from "Nightwatch"). I have to admit, I like Keanu in all sizes but wow, he's looking exceptionally buff here:
Looking good. Be sure to click on the pictures for FULL effect! :)
So I had these plans for the weekend that completely fell apart. Other than a productive Saturday, Sunday was a bit of a bummer of a day and to make matters worse D pretty much talked me out of going out to see "No Country for Old Men" which means I'll now be heading down on Friday to see it - if all goes well.
As for today, rather than doing homework and watching a movie I have to watch for tomorrow, I wasted the day away watching back to back episodes of "My So-Called Life". Oh good god, I can't stop watching. I know I need to but I simply can't turn it off. I've shed more than one tear and laughed more than once....it's brilliant. But I WILL turn it off after this episode. The last on disc 3. Promise.
BTW - My crush on Jared Leto has returned. Oh boy.
It's almost the end of the work day on a Friday before a long weekend. Nothing much I can complain about other than the never ending coughing fits that still hit me occasionally. I have 3 days of rest and relaxation coming up so I'm very excited. Not really all rest though as I have a bunch of reading to do for school and a scene analysis to finish for film class but it's all 'fun' stuff so that's ok. My one major plan out of the house this weekend is going to be a trip to the video store to pick up a couple of movies. Since I have a western I have to watch for next week and a few others that have been highly recommended, I've decided to do an all western Sunday. Should be fun. Titles for viewing will include "Duck You Sucker", "The Proposition" and "Tombstone". What a great trio.
But enough mumbling. Here's the triumphant return of the KFF. Have a great long weekend everyone and remember to remember.
Oh goodness. I was hoping to have some time to get to the theater this weekend to catch up on a few films I've missed over the last two weeks but I'm not sure that's going to be possible.
I need to record the VIFF and October previews for the site, have an assignment due for Film class, have a bunch of reading to do and a whack of notes. I'm going to try to get everything done tomorrow and then spend Sunday at the 5th Ave. Theater where they're showing a load of movies I want to see, certainly enough to fill a few hours.
It's all tentative though, we'll see how it goes.
Finally back to semi-normality and to celebrate, today's KFF is particularly special. If I was an artists, I'd call it "Pensive Keanu".
It has been psychotic at work this week. Here I thought things would be nice and relaxed with the PM gone but no, all other hell breaks loose. It's now Friday morning, I'm up to my eyeballs in work, I've taken on a new minor project with the movie website which ties into VIFF which means it's time sensitive and I'm supposed to be getting some rest this weekend but I have a load of movies to watch in prep for a special gig next week.
The gig is very exciting really but I'm a little nervous. These guys have a show I listen to religiously. They're insigtful, smart and always sound like they know what they're talking about even when you can tell they're talking out of their asses. I don't want to come off sounding like I'm a film dud. So yeah, very nervous. Once details are finalized I'll pass them along.
One good thing is that D and I have decided to drive the Mean Mary down to the US tomorrow. D wants to check out some of the automotive stores out in Bellingham and I'm looking forward to checking out the Japanese super store we discovered at Bellis Fair.
Sunday will be my movie day. I've scheduled an entire day of running around town to various theaters. Hopefully the weather stays nice so I don't have to worry too much about rain. It sucks to ride transit when it's pouring. Monday will be a day of rest and hopefully I can get through a fun book I just started and squeeze in a few more DVDs. I have a feeling once classes kick in on Wednesday my life is going to come to a screeching halt pretty quick. This will be the first semester where I'm going to school full time and running the site full time. It was bad enough with just school and work but this will be the real test.
But that's enough rambling. I hope everyone has a fantastic long weekend and I leave you now with this week's playful KFF!
I need to find a better way to manage my time. I've gone down the electronic and paper route and neither works all that well for me. I really need to fix this before classes start up again in September.
Speaking of classes, I just checked my grades and rather surprisingly, I walked away from the Canadian Film Class with an A+. I say surprisingly because I don't think my final went particularly well.
I'd like to apologise for the small KFF this week. I just really like this picture.
I've been a bad blogger. I've been back for a week and still haven't posted the rest of the trip or even the pictures. Ooops.
I'll try to get to that at some point but I'll just let you all know that the Oregon Coast is fantastic, highly recommended and that I promise to see less sights and get more rest next year. It was a case of too much to see and too little time. We still had a fantastic time but we've been back since Monday afternoon and life hasn't slowed enough to let me rest. Still, it was fantastic and I urge anyone who's vaguely interested to go. You will NOT be disappointed.
I'm seen a couple of interesting films this week including a really interesting and very good documentary on fonts called "Helvetica" and yesterday I saw the American classic "Killer of Sheep" which has been haunting me since I left the theater. Until this point I'd very rarely seen a film that afterwards I knew was a classic and why until I saw this. Breathtaking.
Enough of that now. I have a bunch of work to get done before going home and I'd like to get out of here on time. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and until my next post, enjoy this week's KFF.
Let's begin with a very special birthday wish to the movie that inspired a generation of directors, movie fans and geekboys and girls: Star Wars. May the power be strong for another 30.
It's been a bit of a crazy week. It's been particularly busy at work thanks in part to the long weekend and the fact that the accountant is off today and I'm stuck in the office for the day. Not so much as a coffee break. It's a bit of a bugger. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be turning into a photographer when I make my way down to our presentation center to catalog the suite in pictures. I'm actually looking forward to that. I've never done this type of thing before. Should be fun.
Before I disappear before a mound of paperwork for the day and the rest of the weekend, I want to wish everyone south of the 49th a safe and fun long weekend!
And now, drum roll please, today's KFF: Back to Basics.
